NCAA Football 14 News Post

Many on NCAA Team Blindsided, Then Escorted Out of the Building

01:03 PM - October 1, 2013 by RaychelSnr

My Press Row Podcast colleague Owen Good penned a heart-wrenching read over at Kotaku about what the past few days have been like for an EA Football employee.

Several members of the NCAA team, including 15 year veteran Jeff Luhr, were let go yesterday as EA sought to bring both the NCAA and Madden teams together for future Madden iterations.

There are some interesting nuggets within the article, the most notable is that EA was planning to perhaps introduce a serious customization element into next year's game to allow for custom stadium building, custom uniforms, team's, etc. in a way that's never quite been done before in sports gaming.

Also, there was some talk of doing some enhanced storytelling within dynasty mode to spice it up a bit.

Needless to say, we hope that vision eventually gets to come to light on next-gen consoles. For now, head on over to Kotaku to read Owen's excellent piece.

Game: NCAA Football 14Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 54 - View All

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Member Comments

# 41 Ziza9Noles94 @ 10/03/13 04:47 AM

A little compassion can go a long way. Some people need to let go of their bitterness over the game series personally letting them down and maybe identify with the messed up situation these hastily unemployed devs are going through.

I also doubt any laid off former employee is basically going to spin good PR for EA by outright lying about changes they were planning or hoping to make to the game. What sense does that make? smh

# 42 Peacefrog @ 10/03/13 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundown2600


	All I can say without trashing this series current gen is I really hope those talented devs find work at another company very soon.

These guys were content to release a game with glaring flaws, glitches and bugs, both in gameplay and functionality. I haven't gotten any coach Exp in the online dynasty I joined since I started, and I can't tell you how many times I've had to replay games due to freezes/crashes during end-of-game highlights.

Yeah, it sucks that some people are out of work, but lets not kid ourselves by saying they're talented. This whole PS3/360 generation of football games have been garbage. It sounds to me like a lot of those guys found a paycheck that required minimal effort, and stuck with it for five years. Maybe some of them need to go back to testing.

# 43 da ThRONe @ 10/03/13 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peacefrog


	These guys were content to release a game with glaring flaws, glitches and bugs, both in gameplay and functionality. I haven't gotten any coach Exp in the online dynasty I joined since I started, and I can't tell you how many times I've had to replay games due to freezes/crashes during end-of-game highlights. Yeah, it sucks that some people are out of work, but lets not kid ourselves by saying they're talented. This whole PS3/360 generation of football games have been garbage. It sounds to me like a lot of those guys found a paycheck that required minimal effort, and stuck with it for five years. Maybe some of them need to go back to testing.

I have been as critical as any about NCAA this entire gen, however I'm forced to wonder how much of the blame lays with the suits and how much with the actual developers.

A lot of the devs were on these sites hearing compliants all the time, but we know EA sell games to make money not please the fans. Instead of fixing the real issues they give us back of the box changes. That sounds more like the kind of decision the suits make and they're probably the ones keeping their jobs.

# 44 StormJH1 @ 10/03/13 12:11 PM

Yeah, wow. I understand that a lot of people didn't like NCAA, or preferred Madden to NCAA, but c'mon. The NCAA franchise was the primary reason I ever signed up for an Operation Sports account in the first place. I suspect I'm not alone in that regard.

The only silver lining here is that they made a pretty darn good game as their swan song, and it may end up having a NFL 2k5 "afterlife" due to the fact the college sports games are the ONLY sports games that effectively support that multi-year experience going forward with computer generated players. People are saying that they hope the series can come back with full customization, but not only is that not necessary, you could argue we already have it. I hope to keep playing NCAA 14 for years to come.

# 45 sportzbro @ 10/03/13 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormJH1


	Yeah, wow. I understand that a lot of people didn't like NCAA, or preferred Madden to NCAA, but c'mon. The NCAA franchise was the primary reason I ever signed up for an Operation Sports account in the first place. I suspect I'm not alone in that regard. The only silver lining here is that they made a pretty darn good game as their swan song, and it may end up having a NFL 2k5 "afterlife" due to the fact the college sports games are the ONLY sports games that effectively support that multi-year experience going forward with computer generated players. People are saying that they hope the series can come back with full customization, but not only is that not necessary, you could argue we already have it. I hope to keep playing NCAA 14 for years to come.

What, with a TeamBuilder mode that hasn't been touched for years?

# 46 superxero27 @ 10/03/13 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDFan1029


	No it wouldn't. It would make the NCAA look like the bad guys because they killed off the possibility of a game with these supposedly amazing new features. Given how little EA actually changed/implemented with the current gen versions of the game over the past 7 years, I'm much more inclined to believe this "major customization" thing was completely made up.

Except that EA agreed to settle; it's nowhere near all on the NCAA. Now it may be that in reality EA had little choice, but as we know reality and public perception don't always mix.

# 47 CaseIH @ 10/04/13 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Step2001


	Wow - well, that should rule out any future patches for NCAA 14! Bummer, would have purchased it after patches.

I had a feeling when EA said they would not be making a NCAA football game next yr that we were SOL on a patch for this game. Juts like what they did to us with NCAA basketball there going to do with the this, and thats rid there hands of it and say screw you to us customers. Its the EA way and why I rarely buy any of their junk games anymore cause the big shots of EA are *******s. I rarely rip a dev cause they can only do what there bosses allow them to do, and why I always try to blame the guy at the top. I did buy NCAA football this year and its the best game they have put out in a long time, to bad we wont get a patch or will the devs be able to continue to improve the game.

# 48 bh446066 @ 10/05/13 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Step2001


	Wow - well, that should rule out any future patches for NCAA 14! Bummer, would have purchased it after patches.

Did they ever patch this game to begin with? (serious question)

# 49 La Verite @ 10/05/13 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler


	That is so tragic. Despite all the negative things I've said in the past about EA and NCAA, I wish those guys nothing but the best and hope they land on their feet. Game development can be a cruel mistress.

I'm pretty sure they will be ok. I'm sure they got a nice severence package. Did you like know anyone on that team? Anyways, they will be find.

# 50 goillini03 @ 10/05/13 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by La Verite


	I'm pretty sure they will be ok. I'm sure they got a nice severence package. Did you like know anyone on that team? Anyways, they will be find.

I would be interested in the type of severance they got. I doubt it was nice.

# 51 mercalnd @ 10/05/13 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bh446066


	Did they ever patch this game to begin with? (serious question)

Yes they did. There was a day one patch and another one on August 19th.

# 52 gator3guy @ 10/06/13 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Wise_One


	NCAA 14 is officially the new CHoops 2K8. At least they gave us a great last game for the foreseeable future. Wish those guys well.

I must have gotten a defected copy.

# 53 big earl @ 10/07/13 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bama22Tide


	I hate it when people try to lie and make us gamers feel like we are going to miss out on something that was never going to happen. I believe that they were going to implement the dynasty feature where you could receive help from boosters like in NCAA Basketball. They stadium builds and Jersey crap is just a lie. Team Builder is for that BS. Its just a shame the EA Football franchise is only going to be Madden. Also why didn't those a holes sue 2KSports? they made college football and basketball games using players likeness.. Oh yeah because 2K doesn't have the pockets of EA.

couldn't agree more... AS IF they were going to give us that!!!!

# 54 Cdog923 @ 10/08/13 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamantic


	Ben is now a producer for Madden NFL. Spoiler

Good. I stay as far away from Madden as possible.

# 55 Pokes404 @ 10/08/13 06:27 PM

I'll admit that I've been frustrated with the NCAA series this generation, but I certainly don't doubt that these guys work hard and definitely don't want to see people losing their jobs.

Best of luck to all of them in the future. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.

# 56 nowayout47 @ 10/10/13 07:16 AM

Man, sucks to hear for those guys.

Also sucks to hear we were pretty much one year away from a football game with actual customization in it (since Back Breaker at least, rest its soul).

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